"Derek, can I at least look at it?" I say pointing at this arm visibly injured, but he just narrows at me. "Don't be so fucking stubborn" I say and Stiles just gives me an worried look.
"I wouldn't be so demanding if I were you" he says hesitatingly.
"If you were me, you wouldn't have done many things in the last few days, but fortunately,I'm me and You're you" I say with an innocent smile and he just nods. "Now, where were we? Oh yeah, Derek show me your fucking arm" I say and he just growls.
"I'll call Scott to see if he found something" he suggests and I continue bothering Derek, but I soon see Stiles looking at the phone and putting it again to his ear, only to look disappointed again. "Hey, try not to bleed out on my seats, okay? We're almost there." he says and I just look at him curiously.
"Almost where?" asks Derek and my eyes widen as I start to recognize the road.
"Your house." answers the kid and I face-palm myself. I thought he was supposed to be the smart one.
"What? No, you can't take me there." answers visibly irritated the injured stubborn werewolf
"I can't take you to your own house?"
"Not when he can't protect himself" I say and Stiles just nods a 'right'.
"All right. What happens if Scott doesn't find your little magic bullet? Hmm? Are you dying?" he snaps out of nowhere and I can feel the anger from both sides of the men.
"Not yet. I have a last resort" answers Derek and I just continue to watch the drama.
"What do you mean? What last resort? Oh, my God. What is that? Oh, is that contagious? You know what, you should probably just get out." says Stiles when I remove Derek's sleeve without him noticing to see the wound. Yup, definitely wolfsbane, I might actually have something like that at home, but I don't know exactly which type it is, so I just hope that Scott finds the right one.
"Start the car. Now." demands Derek and I see Stiles's fear in his eyes, but he just covers it up with sarcasm.
"I don't think you should be barking orders with the way you look, okay? In fact, I think if I wanted to, I could probably drag your little werewolf ass out into the middle of the road and leave you for dead."
"Start the car, or I'm gonna rip your throat out - With my teeth."
"Stiles, just start the car" I say and they both fall quiet.
<Half an hour later>
"What am I supposed to do with him?" asks Stiles as we both notice the fact that Derek is getting whiter and whiter.
"Take him somewhere, anywhere." I hear Scott saying through the phone.
"And, by the way, he's starting to smell."
"Like - like what?"
"Like death."
"Actually, that's not the smell of death, it's just his body fighting the infection if I were to be more precise, and no, he's not dying." I say and Stiles's shocked face makes me laugh.
"Okay, take him to the animal clinic." I hear Scott saying and I realize that this could be actually a smart idea.
"What about your boss?" asks Stiles and I assume that his boss is Deaton.
"He's gone by now. There's a spare key in the box behind the dumpster."
"You're not gonna believe where he's telling me to take you."
"Did you find it?" snaps Derek taking the phone out of Stiles's hand.
"How am I supposed to find one bullet? They have a million. This house is like - the fricken Walmart of guns." responds Scott and I burst out a giggle. 'Walmart of guns' this is a good one.
"Look, if you don't find it, then I'm dead, all right?"
"I'm starting to think that wouldn't be such a bad thing."
"Then think about this. The Alpha called you out against your will. He's gonna do it again. Next time you either kill with him or you get killed. So if you wanna stay alive, then you need me. Find the bullet." he hisses and ends the call.
"You scared him. " I say while looking at my nails. "Now, Stiles, drive" I say looking right in his eyes through the mirror and five minutes later we're in front of the clinic. I get off the car and I help Derek, while Stiles goes to open the doors.
"Astrid I need your he-" says Derek while leaning on me.
"I got you. Just stay conscious" I say with a smile and he just raises his eyebrows "This is familiar don't you think?" I ask him and his eyes lighten a bit.
"Yeah, when you got bit by that snake" he says with a small smirk."And I had to carry you home"
"Yup, you were there for me, to help me, so, yeah" I say and I help him to stand, then I go to take some stuff to analyze the type of wolfsbane."This is gonna hurt a little"I say while sticking a iron pincer to take out a tiny piece of infected flesh.
"You said a little" he growls while his eyes flash.
"Yeah, a little more than a little" I say with an innocent smile then I take the flesh to examine it.
"You can figure out what that is?" asks Stiles, horrified by the whole scene.
"Of course I can, every type of wolfsbane infects the body differently. Look, this is destroying the flesh cell by cell, this is not very common, but if you look close enough you can tell that it's colour is blue, fosforescent ."
"That's green" narrows Stiles and I give him some glasses."Wait, why is it blue?" he asks while looking at me.
"Wolfsbane works differently, depending on the species. If it was to be green, it would have been a Stone green lichen, which is mostly found on the highest peaks of mountains, but this one is a Northern blue monkshood, rare and deadly" I say turning to Derek, seeing his eyes widened, most probably because of my knowledge, but my head is quickly turned to Stiles as his phone starts ringing.
"Does Northern blue monkshood mean anything to you?" asks Scott through the phone.
"It's a rare form of wolfsbane. He has to bring me the bullet." I say and I quickly go to catch Derek as I see him losing his balance.
"Why?"
"Cause I'm gonna die without it." responds Derek faintly and for the first time this evening I'm starting to be worried. I start collecting all the information about this kind of wolfsbane, but I can't seem to find anything useful.
"Okay. You know, that really doesn't look like anything some echinacea and a good night of sleep couldn't take care of." says Stiles when Derek decides to finally take off his shirt.
"When the infection reaches my heart, it'll kill me."
""Positivity" just isn't in your vocabulary, is it?" trys Stiles to break a joke but panic is all over the room, from all the three of us.
"If he doesn't get here with the bullet in time - Last resort."
"Which is?"
"You're gonna cut off my arm." states Derek and my eyes widen.
"No, we're not gonna do that"
"Astrid, it will kill me otherwise"
"You are not going to die, Derek" I say but his face says otherwise, as he suddenly feels a wave of pain.
"Oh, my God. What if you bleed to death?" asks Stiles and I automatically run to take the saw out of his hand.
"It'll heal if it works." says Derek but he raises his other arm high enough for me not to reach.
"Ugh. Look - I don't know if I can do this."
"You are not going to do this" I turn to Stiles who just murmurs a "Yes mam"
"Why not?"
"Well, because of the cutting through the flesh, the sawing of the bone, and especially the blood! You can fucking die, you idiot" I swear but he just ignores me.
"You faint at the sight of blood?"
"No, but I might at the sight of a chopped - off arm!"
"All right, fine. How about this? Either you cut off my arm, or I'm gonna cut off your head."
"Nobody is dying tonight, you" I point at Derek " you, are not going to get your arm chopped of and you"I say pointing at Stiles "don't you dare lay one finger on that saw"
"Okay, you know what, I'm so not buying your threats any" says Stiles with a sudden boost of confidence but Derek just growls at him "- Oh, my God. Okay. All right, bought, sold. Totally. I'll do it. I'll do it. What? What are you doing? Holy God, what the hell is that?"
"It's my body - Trying to heal itself."
"Well, it's not doing a very good job of it." he says and I just get in between the two of them,being almost pressed to Derek's chest.
"In normal circumstances I wouldn't mind the view" he says looking down at me with a smirk" But... Now. You gotta do it now." he rushes while pushing me against the wall, almost knocking me down, making Stiles gasp.
"Look, honestly, I don't think I can." says Stiles but everything is blurry before my eyes.
"Just do it!" I hear Derek roaring but I automatically sense Scott's presence.
"Oh, my God. Okay, okay. Oh, my God. All right, here we go!" says Stiles and my vision begins to come back to normal.
"Stiles!"
"Scott?"
"Astrid?"
"Yeah, hi bud" I say while trying to get up.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Oh, you just prevented a lifetime of nightmares."
"Did you get it?" asks Derek but he looks at me while mouthing a "I'm sorry".
"What are you gonna do with it?"
"I'm gonna - I'm gonna - " wants Derek to say but he falls unconscious dropping the bullet somewhere in the room..
"No. No, no, no, no." start both the teenagers to panic.
"Astrid, do something please. Scott, what the hell are we gonna do?" begins Stiles to say but I just go calmly towards the unconscious werewolf, getting on his lap.
"I don't know! I can't reach it. Come on. Just hold on! Come on. Oh! I got it! I got it!" struggles Scott to reach for the bullet and fortunately he get it.
"This is gonna hurt... for you Der" I say while punching him and his arms automatically tighten on my waist.
"Give me -" he begins " nice position, we should try it sometime" he adds in a whisper only for me to hear but I just grin.
"Up!" says Scott and Derek takes the bullet, only to put the flaming wolfsbane of his wound.
"Ow! God - That - Was - Awesome! Yes! " says Stiles but he falls quiet.
"Are you okay?"
"Well, except for the agonizing pain." wines Derek while taking my hand to get up.
"I'm guessing the ability to use sarcasm is a good sign of health." says Stiles and I crack a smile.
"Okay, we saved your life, which means you're gonna leave us alone, you got that? And if you don't, I'm gonna go back to Allison's dad, and I'm gonna tell him everything -" starts Scott to say but I cut him off.
"You're gonna trust them? You think they can help you?" I ask and Derek just looks at me.
"Well, why not? They're a lot freaking nicer than he is."
"I can show you exactly how nice they are." says Derek and I already know where he's going to take him. Peter...